Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Tuesday May 01/2012

Ok I have have not posted anything for a stretch. I have had a lot on my mind, and I have been waiting for a nice sunny day to run out and take some pictures to post but Spring has been a spotty proposition so far.

You know when its Tuesday, just like clockwork, I hear a helicopter coming down the valley from the north at 9am. The doctor from Pemberton comes down once a week to make his calls at the tiny remote native villages of Samaquam, Skatin' and Douglas. I usually hear the machine coming when it clears the mouth of Rogers Creek, and when it is over head the doctor always gets on the radio and announces his arrival for the residents of Skatin', which is only a few minutes flying time from here. For some reason, the helicopter was extra high today. Right when I wanted a good low helicopter shot to post.

If that wasn't a lame enough picture of a helicopter going over, here is another one.

Its that little speck you see, or not. That's the doctor.

Bad bear. I thought I heard something last night, figuring the cats had knocked something over, then look out this am and see the BBQ on the front deck in a wreck. In the nearly 20 years I've been out here no bear has ever molested my BBQ. I initially thought it may have been a wandering band of dogs from Skatin', but there were big sooty bear prints up on top of the hot tub cover, he had got up there and walked around and I'm surprised he didn't fall through.

There have been several mysteries solved around here recently.
First is the case of the missing cat food. I keep dry food for my guard cats out in the shop. I had noticed it had kind of been disappearing over the winter. I had checked some of the likely hiding spots but found no trace. Turns out one or more mice had packed the cat food one piece at a time from the dish across the floor and then scrambled up into the innards of a Honda ATV that was parked in shop. Said ATV developed strange tendencies when taken out for a run in the Spring. The highly trained Hotspring Lodge technicians dug into the problem and found the plenium air-box chock full of about 4 bucks worth of assorted brands of dry cat food.
Little buggers.

Official taste tester ChUk, no problem we can just recycle it back to the guard cat dish.

Another perplexing mystery was the case of the missing gas can.
Last Summer I had reached for my can of mixed fuel I keep around for my saws and gas brush saw, and there it was, gone. I had to think, "who the hell would walk in here and pack off a one gallon can of mixed gas?, esp. when there was a fiver right next to it! I did a search of the immediate area but can be gone.
8 months later, back in March of this year, some young folks were taking a hike up the dry channel out front here and came across a chewed up one gallon gas can, which they brought back to show me. I guess some bear, maybe the same knot head that dumped over my BBQ last night, came upon my fuel can stored behind the shop last summer and was attracted by the bean oil based two-cycle oil. Packing his prize off to the cover by the riverbank then proceeded to bite it full of holes and lap up the contents. He must have been a very volatile bruin after his gas and mix-oil soup.

It is no easy feat to bite into a fuel container, and takes hundreds of pounds per square inch pressure.

These days the 'green', or environmentally friendly two-cycle and bar-oils sold, are generally based on a bean oil, which most bears find irresistible. I've heard of loggers having their chainsaws packed away, and after searching find them off in the bushes licked absolutely spotless. Pretty funny.

KC's chair.

A fella has been coming out to the hot spring for years, always camping out with his younger brother in law for a week at a stretch. Turns out KC does wood work at home and filled his workshop with projects. He is an avid Hotspring Lodge blog reader and noticed some of the funky works I keep around. He was out in March for his Spring camp and brought me a chair he thought I should have. I think its pretty neat.

It looks to be a great year for playing music. There are numerous projects on the go with different musicians, and gigs lined up through the year. A few years back I met a young feller by the name of Josh Fairbrother. He had organised some jam nights at the hotel in Pemberton while he was slinging beer there to liven up the slow Sunday night shift. A talented songwriter and acoustic guitar player, he came out once or so a year to the hot spring to kayak and play music out in my garage/studio. He had the misfortune of spending last Winter in Saskatchewan, although it did move him to buy an electric guitar and write some rockin' new songs which he couldn't wait to get back to BC to run past his favorite drummer.
He moved into the motor home for a few weeks while he waited for his regular gig in Whistler to start. We went over his songs and played a few impromptu live sets for people whom happened to be around.
This past weekend 'Blackwater MC' got invited to an outdoor jam/birthday party held on the back forty of a riding stable in Pemberton.
First obstacle is I have to cram all my drums and sound gear in to my poor Safari tour bus.

Pit stop by Lillooett Lake, with all the gear on I take it pretty easy, taking an hour and a half to reach pavement.

Mount Currie for a backdrop, would be quite a spot to play on a nice day.
I expected it to be a little cool after dark but I always bring a heat-lamp for out door gigs, I clip it to a tall mic stand and it keeps my heads warm. Mine too.

I'm afraid this is the only picture I got, before I set up. Melanie's birthday was a great success, and in true Pemberton redneck style a car trailer was used as a stage, and a truck load of pallets fed a huge 3 metre high fire all night. Many of Pemberton's most talented musicians got up. I got to play drums the entire night, getting back to the Lodge after four in the morning, way past my bedtime. I had to get up early to get the motor home ready for some fellas and prepare for a chat with the head treaty negotiator on some unrelated business.
My eyes felt like a couple of little a-holes all day after being up all night.

There was days worth of studio time reserved for Monday back in town, I unloaded the cumbersome sound equipment from the van. All the big stuff, the two large speakers and the amp and sub-woofer and the rat's nest of cables and my van rides about 4 inches higher. Monday I got out of here early to move into the studio in town at 9am. It didn't take me too long to discover I had forgotten my drumsticks. Luckily, Jason, the sound guy, is a drummer and had a pair of the 7A stick size I'm used to.

It was a little intimidating having mics all over me, knowing every little nuance or slight bobble is going straight on to multi-track recording equipment.

Josh Fairbrother, song writer and driving force behind Blackwater MC project.http://soundcloud.com/blackwatermc
Once Jason had it all dialed in he turned on our headphones and it was a great mix, I could play naturally and Josh and I could interact between the sound deadening mats between him and the 'drum room'. We went straight through 7 songs in the order we always rehearsed them out here at least twice, including a couple of bum starts. The set consists of an even split of electric, and acoustic guitar, Josh's originals, with a cover thrown in.

Command central. Josh and I took lunch and refreshments at the Pemberton Hotel and Jason spent the afternoon mixing and burnt demo cds, one of which has been playing almost continuously around the Lodge since. The professional sound mixing spoils you, you want to sound that good all the time.

Always nice to be heading home with groceries down the lake road.

There a gig at D'arcy BC coming up on the 12th with Archie Peters for the natives Statl'mx Nation gathering, a one hour performance on the Saturday night, looking forward to that, although we need to get together right quick and brush up on some new material. On the long weekend there are some top notch musicians coming up from Vancouver to jam at the Lodge, and I'm counting the sleeps left. A few days before the long weekend Blackwater MC is playing at the Pemberton Hotel. Looks to be some gigs and birthday parties through out the summer and not to mention the world famous Skookumstock out here and who knows what else may come up. Going to be a fun summer musically.

About Me

I'll write about what I know, and what I've done. I've raced motorcycles, fixed them and answered the phone. I've worked with heavy equipment in the north, mined placer gold in the Klondike, and saw-milled timbers in the Central American jungle. For 20 years now I've lived at a beautiful, historic, remote hot spring property with a water driven generator out in Indian territory. Sometimes I'm called upon as a musician. I've been fortunate to have done some really cool stuff too. Those are the experiences I will share.
Enjoy.